grassmonk.net

I was just reading through one of my poetry notebooks and found two different dates on Illusion than the one that is listed on the site. The site lists it as March 18, 1996. My notebook has March 12, 2006 and February 17, 1997. I remember enough to know that the version on the site is the February 1997 version, but I can’t explain the discrepancy of March 12 and March 18. Again, I wish I had the original.

It’s funny that my revisionistic practices put the newest version of the poem on the site while retaining the original (?) writing date.

*Sigh* Aye chi monkey.

The poem in question: I’m The Monkey

This is another poem of pure silliness, separated by just over a month’s writing time from the last one.

For a bit of historical context, this poem was written right around the beginning of the poetry unit we did in my English class I first referenced in this post. A few upcoming commentaries will have more details on the depths of agony my friend Ben and I endured during this particular time in class.

Some notes:

The site lists this poem as being written April 30, 1996. My notebook says simply “5/96.” It’s one of the few–perhaps the only?–one of my poems that I don’t have an exact date for.

“DKC” refers to “Donkey Kong Country,” the great Super Nintendo game. I’m not quite sure how a country lout would play it, as such, but apparently that’s how I do.

I still ain’t too chunky, nor do I yet have a tail.

I haven’t climbed a tree in a long time. When I was about 13 we had a great big cherry tree in our back yard that I loved to climb. We also had a really, really tall tree–I don’t know what kind. I remember one of the neighbor kids was climbing it once and he was almost at the top. He asked me if I would jump down to the ground from the top of the tree to save a family member. When I said I didn’t know, he boastfully declared that he would have no hesitation in doing so.

That struck me as odd, because if you break every bone in your body from the fall, what help are you going to be? The only way I could see to avoid a bone-crushing landing was to be a ninja, and if you’re a ninja, why are you up in a tree? So you can see my puzzlement at the neighbor kid’s logic.

Anyway, I haven’t climbed a tree in a while, but my little brother loves to climb trees. Maybe we’re both the monkey.

The poem in question: Aye Chi Monkey

You know that expression "aye chihuahua!!"? I hate dogs. Other than that, this poem is just pure silliness.

In this stage of my life, "aye chi monkey" was a common phrase of mine, one that has lost its frequent employ over the years. I should reinstate it as a matter of policy.

A few notes on the poem:

The third to last line is the only one of the sets that doesn’t contain a variation of the word "yell."

The word "wench" can be hilarious, especially a wench yelling "aye chi monkey!" You know I’m right.

I have nothing more to add, except, "AYE CHI MONKEY!"